Digital Travel Directions

In this article we look at two of the principle ways in which digital technology may plausibly change the nature of, and to some extent replace, physical travel. The most obvious is to simulate another place as a virtual reality, one that can convey a convincing sense of being there. This can be seen as making the digital world more physical, as far as the user’s experience is concerned, and is a strong form of digital travel. Video gaming and some work with therapeutic applications for relaxation, regeneration and exercise point to the potential of this kind of digital travel to have a wider and more engaging role in the future. In contrast, widely used and accepted systems for on-line meetings, and various phone apps providing location-sensitive information to their users, and also augmented reality approaches (none of which convey a strong sense of being in another location), suggest another approach - that of making the physical world more digital. We characterise this as a weaker form of digital travel. To examine people’s attitudes to these two approaches, we created two fictional scenarios, each exemplifying key characteristics of these forms of digital travel. We report opinion ratings about the two scenarios, focusing on participants opinions of their realism, their likelihood to become common practice, and their suitability for different purposes. Finally, we speculate about the possible future for designed digital travel experiences.